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by quiet__tiger



Series: Screw the Bats [2]
Category: Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Love Triangle, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 12:59:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet__tiger/pseuds/quiet__tiger
Summary: Tim makes a choice. He thinks it's the right one





	

**Author's Note:**

> Chronologically first before [Screw the Bats](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10594470).
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal August 25, 20008.
> 
> Prompt: Triangle.

Tim winced as another of his books crashed against the wall next to his head. He’d never seen Kon angry enough to throw things, but here they were, Kon looking like he wanted to fry him alive with his heat vision. Kon spat at him, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“It wasn’t like I planned it...”

“Remember how angry I was when you went behind my back and investigated my DNA?” Tim nodded once, not happy with the direction this was all heading. “That was nothing like this. I trusted you, opened up to you, and you fucking cheat on me with _Dick_? I should have--What the hell is the matter with you?”

“If you hadn’t been spying on me in Gotham, you’d have never seen!”

“You told me you had a test to study for. I wanted to give you a little study break. But you weren’t home and then I saw you on that roof making out with Dick! If you hadn’t lied I wouldn’t have found you!”

Tim wasn’t so sure. If he’d told the truth, that he was patrolling with Dick, Kon might have let him be. But maybe not, because Kon had seemed to be getting more and more suspicious of Dick, and Tim’s relationship with him.

With good cause.

“I didn’t want you spying on Dick and me during patrol, either.”

Kon glowered, his eyes tinged red. “I wouldn’t have. I respect the Bat rules and your work. I just didn’t want you studying so hard. But yeah, I’m the bad guy for spying on you. You’re completely in the clear.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Yeah, but you probably think you are. You think you’re above everyone. You always have.”

It stung badly, knowing that Kon was mostly right. Tim had always been better than everyone at everything. Except for Dick, of course. And it was true, he hadn’t thought that Kon would find out about him and Dick. Certainly not like this.

“Did you have to wait to do this _here_? Our friends are probably listening right now.”

“Good. You should be glad we even made it to your room. Everyone should know that you’re a selfish asshole. Yelling at you in the middle of Gotham in the middle of the night wouldn’t have the same effect. And I really didn’t think I’d seen things right.” Kon jerked. “You didn’t even try to lie and make up an excuse, like Ivy’s pollen or magic or something. You really just want Dick.”

It ached, but Kon was right. Kon was his best friend and he’d been happy with their relationship, taking it to new, exciting levels.

But Kon wasn’t Dick.

“You don’t understand, you haven’t been able to have a crush on someone for more than a decade, to admire them, watch him work, join his team...” He trailed off as he watched Kon’s face start to crumple, but then it smoothed out as he controlled his anger.

“Fuck. You.” He turned to leave Tim’s room, the fight gone from him. But then he turned back. He started, “He’s your fucking brother...” But then he shook his head. “If you wanted Dick so badly, why did you come on to me?”

Tim swallowed, his throat tight. “I liked you.”

Kon stared, then nodded once. “But not enough.”

Then he was out the door, slamming it behind him, and Tim heard him bark at someone, “Get the fuck out of my way!”

Tim sat on his bed, was fine for a few seconds, and then started shaking. He’d just screwed up his friendship and lost his boyfriend, and all for Dick.

Part of him wondered if it was worth it, but a far larger part of him knew it was. It was _Dick_.

He took out the solvent to help peel off his mask; he didn’t want to be Robin right now. Robin was hard to maintain; his life was complicated. Tim was just a student with a sometimes complicated home life. He didn’t carry the weight of the world, or what felt like it, on his shoulders. He didn’t hurt his friends.

But Robin... Robin fought crime, Robin hurt people, Robin got hurt. And... Robin wanted Nightwing. Needed him.

He didn’t regret kissing Dick on that warehouse roof, didn’t regret his hands on him.

But he did regret hurting Kon. He’d never planned on hurting Kon. He hadn’t yet had a plan in mind for telling Kon about him and Dick, but he would have tried to work it out so Kon didn’t hurt, wasn’t angry with him.

He’d suspected Kon knew of his crush on Dick, but it hadn’t mattered, he didn’t think. But that was because nothing had yet happened between them...

Such a fucking mess.

Then he heard tapping on his window, and knew it would be Nightwing. He turned to look, his aching heart warming a little as he saw his “big brother” clinging to the outside wall. He got up and opened the window, and told him, “You could have come through the Tower.”

Climbing through the window, Dick answered, “I’ve been listening to Superboy yelling at you. I thought I’d stay away from him and anyone else inside.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Couldn’t stay away from you.” Tim’s chest went tight for a different reason. He wrapped his arms around Dick, hands sliding across Nightwing’s costume.

He mumbled into his neck, “I fucked things up with Kon.”

“You would have had to eventually.”

“But gently. Not like this. But I hadn’t expected him to see us. He was in Gotham last night. When we were on the roof.”

“He shouldn’t have been in Gotham.”

“That doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t make me right.”

Dick squeezed him, hard, and led him over to the bed. They sat down, Tim not quite in Dick’s lap. “What do you want to do?”

Tim felt his eyes get hot. “I want my best friend to stop hating me.”

Dick rubbed his back. “He needs time. Time to adjust, time to move on.”

Tim was finding it hard to breathe. “Yeah.”

Dick’s hand stopped. “That’s what you want, right? You want to be with me. I’ve never pictured myself as the ‘other woman;’ the last few nights haven’t been some sort of fluke, right?”

Tim shook his head. His voice was rough as he answered, “I’ve wanted you since I was a little kid. In different ways, but... It’s always been you.”

Dick made an affirmative-sounding noise and pulled Tim into his lap, holding him tightly. “I didn’t mean to mess up your relationship with Kon. If everyone handled themselves differently...”

Tim wasn’t sure where Dick was going with that thought, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it. “Stop talking.” He turned in Dick’s lap until he was straddling him. He tapped his mask. “Take this off.”

Dick complied, and Tim kissed him, both for comfort and for reassurance that he was making the right decision. Things with Kon had been good, great at times, but it wasn’t like this. Kissing Dick, touching Dick, felt so right, felt like coming home.

Kon just didn’t feel the same way.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about how angry Kon was, how hurt, couldn’t stop thinking about the way Kon _looked_ at him when he confronted him about Dick earlier, telling him about catching them on the roof last night, like he wasn’t sure if he should be upset or not. And then how he glared when he left a few minutes ago, like he wasn’t sure if he should set Tim on fire or not.

Then Dick kissed him harder, and Tim stopped thinking about Kon, and pawed at Dick, trying to take some of his warmth into himself.

But part of him still couldn’t stop wondering how if things with Dick were so right, so good, why did he hurt so much right now?


End file.
